- cypherpunks-legacy@lists.ogf.org

NEWS! Steve Jackson case
by hkhenson＠cup.portal.com 02 Feb '93

02 Feb '93

I pulled this off comp.org.eff.news. I imagine many of you on both the extropian and cypherpunk list have been following this, but since there was no mention . . . . It is related to extropians because Steve is an Alcor member and Alcor once had similar problems (we sued the county using the same statute because our BBS was taken without a proper warrant and got $30k in an out of court settlement.) This is a report of day three of the trial which ended last week. There is more on the other two days posted in comp.org.eff.talk. Enjoy. Thanks to wixer!pacoid(a)cs.utexas.edu (Paco Xander Nathan) for posting, Joe Abernathy for excellent reporting, *many* thanks to EFF and especially John Gilmore (EFF founder and owner of toad.com--home of the cypherpunks list) and congratulations to Steve Jackson! Keith Henson ------- Steve Jackson Games/Secret Service wrapup By JOE ABERNATHY Copyright 1993, Houston Chronicle AUSTIN -- An electronic civil rights case against the Secret Service closed Thursday with a clear statement by federal District Judge Sam Sparks that the Service failed to conduct a proper investigation in a notorious computer crime crackdown, and went too far in retaining custody of seized equipment. The judge's formal findings in the complex case, which will likely set new legal precedents, won't be returned until later. A packed courtroom sat on the edge of the seat Thursday morning as Sparks subjected the Secret Service agent in charge of the investigation to a grueling dressing-down. The judge's rebuke apparently convinced the Department of Justice to close its defense after calling only that one of the several government witnesses on hand. Attorney Mark Battan entered subdued testimony seeking to limit the award of monetary damages. Secret Service Special Agent Timothy Foley of Chicago, who was in charge of three Austin computer search-and-seizures on March 1, 1990, that led to the lawsuit, stoically endured Spark's rebuke over the Service's poor investigation and abusive computer seizure policies. While the Service has seized dozens of computers since the crackdown began in 1990, this is the first case to challenge the practice. "The Secret Service didn't do a good job in this case. We know no investigation took place. Nobody ever gave any concern as to whether (legal) statutes were involved. We know there was damage," Sparks said in weighing damages. The lawsuit, brought by Steve Jackson Games of Austin, said that the seizure of three computers violated the Privacy Protection Act, which provides First Amendment protections against seizing a publisher's works in progress. The lawsuit further said that since one of the computers was being used to run a bulletin board system containing private electronic mail, the seizure violated the Electronic Communications Privacy Act in regards to the 388 callers of the Illuminati BBS. Sparks grew visibly angry when it was established that the Austin science fiction magazine and game book publisher was never suspected of a crime, and that agents did not do even marginal research to establish a criminal connection between the firm and the suspected illegal activities of an employee, or to determine that the company was a publisher. Indeed, agents testified that they were not even trained in the Privacy Protection Act at the special Secret Service school on computer crime. "How long would it have taken you, Mr. Foley, to find out what Steve Jackson Games did, what it was?" asked Sparks. "An hour? "Was there any reason why, on March 2, you could not return to Steve Jackson Games a copy, in floppy disk form, of everything taken? "Did you read the article in Business Week magazine where it had a picture of Steve Jackson -- a law-abiding, tax-paying citizen -- saying he was a computer crime suspect? "Did it ever occur to you, Mr. Foley, that seizing this material could harm Steve Jackson economically?" Foley replied, "No, sir," but the judge offered his own answer. "You actually did, you just had no idea anybody would actually go out and hire a lawyer and sue you." More than $200,000 has been spent by the Electronic Frontier Foundation in bringing the case to trial. The EFF was founded by Mitchell Kapor amid a civil liberties movement sparked in large part by the Secret Service computer crime crackdown. "The dressing-down of the Secret Service for their behavior is a major vindication of what we've been saying all along, which is that there were outrageous actions taken against Steve Jackson that hurt his business and sent a chilling effect to everyone using bulletin boards, and that there were larger principles at stake," said Kapor, contacted at his Cambridge, Mass., office. "We're very happy with the way the case came out," said Shari Steele, who attended the case as counsel for the EFF. "That session with the judge and Tim Foley is what a lawyer dreams about." That session seemed triggered by a riveting cross-examination of Foley by Pete Kennedy, Jackson's attorney. Kennedy forced Foley to admit that the search warrant did not meet even the Service's own standards for a search-and-seizure, and did not establish that Jackson Games was suspected of being involved in any illegal activity. "Agent Foley, it's been almost three years. Has Chris Goggans been indicted? Has Loyd Blankenship been indicted? Has Loyd Blankenship's computer been returned to him?" The purported membership of Jackson Games employee Blankenship in the Legion of Doom hacker's group triggered the raids that day on Jackson Games, Blankenship's home, and that of Goggans, a Houstonian who at the time was a University of Texas student. No charges have been filed, although the computer seized from Blankenship's home -- containing his wife's dissertation -- never has been returned. After the cross-examination, Sparks questioned Foley on a number of key details before and after the raid, focusing on the holes in the search warrant, why Jackson was not allowed to copy his work in progress after it was seized, and why his computers were not returned after the Secret Service analyzed them, a process completed before the end of March. "The examination took seven days, but you didn't give Steve Jackson's computers back for three months. Why?" asked an incredulous Sparks. "So here you are, with three computers, 300 floppy disks, an owner who was asking for it back, his attorney calling you, and what I want to know is why copies of everything couldn't be given back in days. Not months. Days. "That's what makes you mad about this case." The Justice Department contended that Jackson Games is a manufacturer, and that only journalistic organizations can call upon the Privacy Protection Act. It contended that the ECPA was not violated because electronic mail is not "intercepted" when a BBS is seized. This argument rests on a narrow definition of interception.

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Is this real?
by Don Henson 02 Feb '93

02 Feb '93

--> Is this real? -kuech- <-- Is what real? Don Henson PGP key available on request

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Re: Remailer abuse?
by ghabrech＠ultrix.ramapo.edu 02 Feb '93

02 Feb '93

just got a ton of mail regarding the Remailer abuse. This wouldn't have anything to do with the loophole in the telnet sendmail port (25) would it. Thanx, Ghabrech(a)ultrix.ramapo.edu P.S. I heard that PGP version 2.1 was out. I used gopher but could not find it. Which sites would have it? Thanx again, L8R

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Remailer abuse?
by hal＠alumni.cco.caltech.edu 02 Feb '93

02 Feb '93

When the Pax remailer was shut down, I stopped keeping any logs of my remailer operation. I felt that I did not want to provide information that would be helpful to those forces which oppose information privacy. So, I don't know the history of it, but today I received this message: To: hal(a)alumni.cco.caltech.edu Subject: Re: what you said you wanted I am shocked that you would send such trash to innocent young girls, whom you don't even know (Not that it is better if you know them) Well, I am appalled!!! Why me?? Is someone using my remailer to send trash to innocent young girls? I am uncomfortable to be facilitating this kind of activity. Can anyone offer suggestions for the ethical thing to do in this situation? Hal 74076.1041(a)compuserve.com

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DES flushed from numerical recipes
by phr＠napa.Telebit.COM 02 Feb '93

02 Feb '93

Fans of the Numerical Recipes book might like to know there's a second edition out. It includes quite a few improvements, and a much expanded chapter on random number generation. However, the DES routine from the first edition has been flushed on the grounds that it was too slow to be useful as an RNG. Oh well.

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Re: turning on yourself during car stops
by wcs＠anchor.ho.att.com 02 Feb '93

02 Feb '93

> >From: Peter Honeyman <honey(a)citi.umich.edu> > >i believe there is a special exception related to automobiles > >that makes them subject to search without a warrant when the > >driver is placed under arrest. but check with a lawyer. Just be sure not to get out of your car - there are different rules that apply to cars without occupants in them, though your state's rules may vary. But it's much better to avoid getting to that stage. Be friendly in your non-cooperation, and if a hostile-looking cop wants to see whether your papers are in order, give him your license, registration, insurance papers, *and* your ACLU card ("Don't leave home without it"). As a friend of mine says to cops, "If you've got a legal right to search my car, I'm sure you will, but if you need my permission, you don't have it." Of course, this is no longer really cypherpunks material, just regular punks :-) Bill Stewart, somewhere in New Jersey

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MAILreaders: NUpop
by pfarrell＠cs.gmu.edu 01 Feb '93

01 Feb '93

I've been playing with NUpop, (a PC program) and am impressed with it. It would help bring PGP to the masses, except that currently the source is not available. The author says that supporting external filter programs is on his list, but it is a long list. The home FTP site for nupop is casbah.acns.nwu.edu in the /pub/nupop directory. Current field release is nupop103.zip, with nupop110.zip in 'beta' stages. It is widely available - ask archie. While I really like NUpop, unless the sources become available, or the priority of external filters gets higher on the list, we need to look elseware. Can someone with experience with Eudora for the PC give a short review? Thanks Pat Pat Farrell, Grad Student pfarrell(a)cs.gmu.edu Department of Computer Science, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA PGP key available via finger or request #include standard.disclaimer

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Re: Eudora mail reader for the Macintosh
by John W Noerenberg 01 Feb '93

01 Feb '93

At 10:49 AM 2/1/93 -0800, Timothy C. May wrote: > >I'll bring a copy of Eudora 1.3b119 to the next meeting (Feb. 13th). I had >to ResEdit some stuff to make it work with NETCOM, with the help of a >friend. Stuff like login name, location of the POP server, and expected >responses. Getting it to work on the W.E.L.L. may take some hacking, but >I'm sure it'll work. The official release of 1.3 should be available from our ftp site on the 3rd. That's the day we are scheduled to go golden with the PC and Mac verisons. There will be other ftp sites as well. Send a note to eudora-info(a)qualcomm.com for our canned reply. john noerenberg jwn2(a)qualcomm.com noerenberg.j (Applelink) =========================================================== That which has always been accepted by everyone, everwhere, is almost certain to be false. -- John Millington Synge "Tel Quel" [1943] ===========================================================

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Eudora mail reader for the Macintosh
by tcmay＠netcom.com 01 Feb '93

01 Feb '93

(I wrote this as a reply to Dave Deltorto, then realized there may be other Mac-using cypherpunks for whom this might be useful.) Meta-message to list: I propose a brief AGENDA ITEM on mail readers like Eudora and the DOS versions, as part of our understanding of what mail readers are out there and what may need to be hacked to incorporate PGP. RIPEM, etc. I'll speak very briefly on Eudora, and others can speak on others readers. How's this sound? Dave Deltorto writes: (part of some e-mail we exchanged....nothing sensitive, so I hope Dave doesn't mind me quoting it and distributing it to the List.) BTW, Dave is referring to my "Top Ten Reasons I Don't Use PGP" article I sent out to this list a few months back and which I forwarded to him recently. >Listen, in case I didn't mention this, I DID enjoy your Top Ten spoof, and I >sort of figured that by now you had the MacPGP (do you have the .73 beta?). I have the 0.5.3 version, which seems to work OK. Eudora (the mail reader program) has made reading PGP messages much easier--I automatically get all my mail, cut the PGP messages into the clipboard, insert them into Vantage (a text editor), rename them "message.asc", close the file, then tell MacPGP to decrypt them. Seems to work, and is a whole lot better than having to zmodem each file individually! (In case you're wondering, the combination of NETCOM, Emacs, etc. would not allow me to cut-and-paste into or out of the editor, hence the need to zmodem the files back to my home machine. Eudora takes care of all of this! I wrote, and then Dave replied: >>>By the way, I've been using "Eudora," an automated mail delivery and >>>retrieval system for the Mac. If you're interested, I can show it to you at >>>the next Cypherpunks meeting. > >Yes, I am very interested in Eudora. Could I use it to automatically gather >my Internet mail off the Well? I don't know anything about it, so that may be >a dumb question, but I look forward to meeting you at the next meeting where >you can clue me in and show it to me. I'll bring a copy of Eudora 1.3b119 to the next meeting (Feb. 13th). I had to ResEdit some stuff to make it work with NETCOM, with the help of a friend. Stuff like login name, location of the POP server, and expected responses. Getting it to work on the W.E.L.L. may take some hacking, but I'm sure it'll work. (NETCOM is a wonderful service, though, and you should seriously consider using it instead of the W.E.L.L....fixed monthly fee for unlimited use. If you're within one of the many POPs (points of presence, not to be confused with the "Post Office Protocol" cited above!) in the Bay Area (or L.A., Seattle, Portland, Sacramento, etc.), the connections are free. Also, you get 5 MB of storage for files, buffer space, etc., instead of the measly W.E.L.L. allotment.) -Tim -- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)netcom.com | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-688-5409 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^756839 | Public Key: waiting for the dust to settle.

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mh wrappers for pgp.
by shipley＠dis.org 01 Feb '93

01 Feb '93

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- #!/usr/local/bin/tperl4.010 #!/usr/local/bin/perl # pgpedit V1.0 # Mon Feb 1 04:10:42 PST 1993 # Peter Shipley (shipley(a)utter.dis.org -or- shipley(a)berkeley.edu) # to install (mh instructions) # place this script in your path (eg ~/bin) # create few links: # # ln -s /usr/local/mh/bin/repl ~/bin/pgprepl # ln -s /usr/local/mh/bin/comp ~/bin/pgpcomp # # Add the following to your .mh_profile: # # pgprepl: -editor pgpedit # pgpcomp: -editor pgpedit # # To use just use the commands pgprepl or pgpcomp instead of repl or comp # require "sys/wait.ph"; #custom stuff here #default editor $defaulteditor="/usr/ucb/vi"; $pgpcommand="/usr/local/bin/pgp -sta +clearsig=on"; $debug=0; #test the arg count die "bad argument count" if ($#ARGV > 0); #set the umask to something really paranoid umask(07177); #set the path if there is not one $ENV{'PATH'} = '/bin:/usr/ucp:/usr/bin' unless $ENV{'PATH'}; # get the editor if ($ENV{'VISUAL'}) { $editor=$ENV{'VISUAL'} ; } elsif ($ENV{'EDITOR'}) { $editor=$ENV{'EDITOR'} ; } else { $editor = $defaulteditor; } $editor = $defaulteditor if $editor =~ /pgpedit/ ; # prepare the file. &prepfile($ARGV[0]); # run the editor &runeditor($ARGV[0]); # have pgp sign the file &SignMailFile($ARGV[0]); # the end exit 0; sub SignMailFile { local($INPUT) = @_; local($BODY) = "/tmp/pgp$$.body"; local($PGPBODY) = "$BODY".".asc"; print "$INPUT \n" if ($debug); open(INPUT, "+>>$INPUT" ) || die "failed to open $INPUT: $!\n"; seek(INPUT,0, 0); open(BODY, "+>$BODY") || die "failed to open $BODY: $!\n"; select(BODY); $| = 1; select(STDOUT); line: while (<INPUT>) { if (/^--------/) { $where = tell; last; } } print STDERR "$BODY \n" if ($debug); while (<INPUT>) { print BODY $_; } print STDERR "$pgpcommand $BODY\n" if ($debug); `$pgpcommand $BODY`; truncate(BODY, 0); unlink($BODY); close(BODY); open(PGPBODY) || die "failed to open $PGPBODY: $!\n"; truncate(INPUT,$where) || warn "failed to truncate file $FILE: $!\n"; seek(INPUT,$where,0); print INPUT "\n\n"; print INPUT <PGPBODY>; truncate(PGPBODY, 0); unlink($PGPBODY); close(PGPBODY); return; } sub prepfile { local($FILE) = @_; local(@data); open(FILE, "+>>$FILE" ) || die "failed to open $FILE: $!\n"; seek(FILE, 0, 0); while(<FILE>) { push (@data, $_); last if ( /^--------/ ); } # push (@data, "\n\n\n"); while(<FILE>) { last if (/^-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----/); } if( !eof(FILE) ) { while(<FILE>) { last if (/^-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----/); push (@data , $_); } seek(FILE, 0, 0); truncate(FILE, 0); print FILE @data; } close(FILE); return; } sub runeditor { local($file) = @_; local($pid); FORK: { if ($pid = fork) { wait; } elsif (defined $pid) { # $pid is zero here if defined exec "$editor $file"; } elsif ($! =~ /No more process/) { # EAGAIN, supposedly recoverable fork error sleep 5; redo FORK; } else { # weird fork error die "Can't fork: $!\n"; } } return; } -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.1 iQBFAgUBK20WHMhmn7GUWLLFAQFBawF6AuCjRKbZQcAM1NFXwrYO1MLmTvPcV7FC loRe/LqIoNwMST9sKfDFNSBoKmvCEaaB =Cjuz -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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